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Yesterday saw the final match of the 2010 season for the club. Keith had all but won the championship already, as with an 19 point lead over Tony, and only 18 members fishing, he only had to weigh in to secure the points he needed. That was very fortunate for him as, having not finished below 5th in the previous 7 matches he then proceeded to have his worst result by far.
The lake fished way below its best, probably due to the recent drop in temperatures. Either that or it was the effect of ¾ of the Collier clan being in attendance. Fortunately I ended on peg 9 and despite comments of fishing a family section I ended up in a section of 4 with Chris, Keith and Clive, another section of death. to be continued later.........................much later probably,so don't hold your breath
Well she at least got a few notable names on her list, Colin, Chris AND KEITH .
Im sure you must have been a little concerned at some time during the day Mugger. . Still she really enjoyed it and has said she would like to do more next year.
It's off down to Hartleylands fishery at Cranbrook in Kent for another club match today. We've booked the whole of Nick's Lake and invited a few guests so hopefully all will have a decent day . A dark damp picture greeted me as I looked out of the window this morning and as I loaded the car there was a definite chill in the air , Autumn had well and truly arrived .
By 7·15am I was sitting down in the Knox-Bridge Café for a 'Full English' and I was soon joined by Mick the Chippy who was my guest for the day while John, Martin & Zack were soon followed by Graham, Al, Keith and Pete Thompson, all in search of some pre-match sustenance . So with breakfast taken care of it was back to the cars and off to the fishery for the draw.
Most of the usual suspects were present and with the sun beaming down hopes were high for a decent days fishing, though a cool north easterly wind made sure that everyone was glad that they were well wrapped up . Into the draw bag and peg 4 revealed itself as my home for the day at head, a nice short walk once I'd moved my car and I would have the sun on me all day to take the edge off the chill . I had Martin for company on my right on peg 2, while to my left I had Dave Collier along with daughter Chrissy and her partner Nick on pegs 7, 8 & 9.
Set up for the day would be nice and simple. Feeder rod with a small method feeder to fish to the island and 3 pole rigs. the 3 pole rigs were all Malman 4x12 Adam's on 0·16 Power Match with size 18 QM1 hooks set at various depths to cover from the margins where I had around 2ft out to 5mtrs were there was around 4ft. I wasn't planning to fish any further out on the pole as the wind would make it awkward. Bait today was my usual selection of GOT Baits soft hookers, expanders and 6mm hard pellets while feed would just be a mix of 4 & 6mm hard pellets and some groundbait for the method.
While I waited for the All-In I had a few misgivings in that I hadn't seen many fish showing on what is normally a very prolific venue and the water had what I can only describe as a cloudy look to it as the algae was starting to break down with the onset of the cooler weather . Anyway at 10am Dave blew the whistle for the All-In and I cupped 2 pots of pellets in on the 5mtr line and fed both margins before going out to the island with the method feeder. Ken seemed to be straight into a few fish on the waggler ......
....... while Dave, Chrissy and Nick all seemed to be into fish as well . Twenty minutes in and I hadn't had as much as a knock on the method which was very unusual :(, however I noticed a couple of bubbles on the 5mtr line and soon swapped over to the pole line.
A couple of lift and drops and the float slid away, the culprit being a mint little Common of around a pound to get me underway .
Now I wish I could say that this was the start of a major bagging session but if I did I would be telling porkies . I did start to put a few fish together but it was far from fast and furious despite Jean arriving with a welcome mug of coffee . Two hours in and I'd only managed 10 small Carp from the 5mtr line and despite another couple of looks across on the method, had still not had as much as a tap on it .
Going nowhere fast I re-fed both pole lines and went for a stroll with the camera to try and suss out how others were catching, if indeed they were. Dave was dropping a bait by the young willow in his left margin and was soon into a fish as I watched ......
Chris was a picture of concentration and while he was getting quite a few small silvers had only had 2 small carp to go with them and boost his catch .......
Keith was having a bit of a struggle, but being comfortably ahead in the points table was using the day to experiment fishing paste which was producing some very positive bites but little in the way of fish .......
....... while Clive wasn't fairing much better, and I'm sure I heard him telling his drawing hand that he'd be teaching it another sharp lesson after today .......
Carrying on round I came to Colin who I knew had been down a couple of times practising during the week along with Tony, Terry and Dave. He'd caught well on paste (no surprise there ) but the drop in temperature looked to have scuppered his plans as he was having a struggle today .......
...... on the next peg Kevin had been struggling too, but he was just in the process of landing a small Carp, so hopefully things would start to pick up for him ......
Al was ticking along and owning up to around 15 Carp in the net and Pete was a little frustrated that his plans for a days skimmer bashing was being thwarted by the fact that the skimmers were to small and Carp kept muscling in on the act .......
Mick seemed happy enough with his lot and was getting a few fishing the method but felt that he was waiting just a little to long between bites to do any real damage .......
Terry was another of those anglers who was finding that the fishing today bore no resemblance to that he'd experienced earlier on in the week ......
Ken's bright start had slowed somewhat though he was still picking up the odd fish on the waggler and Graham was another of those who was finding to many small silvers and not enough Carp in the mix ......
Back at my peg it was just a case of getting my head down and getting the most from my peg for the rest of the match ......
It was far from fast and furious but by working away at it, constantly lifting, dropping and dragging the rig I kept picking up the odd Carp nothing bigger than 2 pounds and mostly smaller. My feeder line just refused to produce a fish despite another couple of looks and neither margin line produced a bite either . Dave's fish had slowed right up on him as well, but he'd got off to such a good start that I knew he was out of my reach. John and Zack came round to collect Martin as they were leaving early and John took the honours in the 3 way car sweep with his 18½lbs . I managed a bit of a spurt with 10 Carp in the last hour and when Dave blew the whistle for the All-Out at 4pm I'd managed 36 Carp.
So to the Weigh-In and my fish gave me a weight of 45¾lbs which would be good enough for a section win on the day . Chrissy's 35½lbs had beaten Nick's 27lbs, but Dave had won the family battle with a very decent 72¼lbs for 2nd overall . Keith had suffered his worst result of the series with just 12¾lbs to show for his efforts :(, while Clive's 45¾lbs tied my weight . Tony's 55½lbs secured 3rd on the day , but todays winner was Al with a fine 84½lbs . Pete ended with a creditable 53½lbs for 4th on his first ever visit to the fishery , while Mick managed 41¾lbs and Ken took the honours from the car park bank with 32½lbs .
So that's it for this years Marsh AC matches. Thanks to Dave for organising yet another enjoyable series of matches .
Well Done to Keith, Mr Consistent topping the points table . Thanks to all the members and guests who have fished, you're the ones who make it such an enjoyable day out each and every time .
Finally a special Thank You to Jean for those mugs of coffee during the matches, they were much appreciated .
Right - back on line now. Just want to echo mucho thanks to Dave for organising the series - always great fun - always a pleasure to see everyone. Well done to Al who, despite my doubts because of the temperature drop, put plenty of feed in (9 pints to my 4) to keep a steady steam of smaller fish coming for a good win.
Particular congrats to Keith for comfortably and deservedly winning the league table - pity the last match slightly spoiled your figures, but we all get one of those days sooner or later.
Looking forward to next years series.
Thanks to Dave for running a fine series I really enjoyed the fishing and company this year
If I could afford it I'd have Rockells filled in
but thats another story
Looking forward to Hawkhurst next year already
. A dark damp picture greeted me as I looked out of the window this morning and as I loaded the car there was a definite chill in the air , Autumn had well and truly arrived .
and I was soon joined by Mick the Chippy who was my guest for the day while John, Martin & Zack were soon followed by Graham, Al, Keith and Pete Thompson, all in search of some pre-match sustenance . So with breakfast taken care of it was back to the cars and off to the fishery for the draw.
. I had Martin for company on my right on peg 2, while to my left I had Dave Collier along with daughter Chrissy and her partner Nick on pegs 7, 8 & 9.
. Anyway at 10am Dave blew the whistle for the All-In and I cupped 2 pots of pellets in on the 5mtr line and fed both margins before going out to the island with the method feeder. Ken seemed to be straight into a few fish on the waggler ......
.
. Keith had suffered his worst result of the series with just 12¾lbs to show for his efforts :(, while Clive's 45¾lbs tied my weight 
, but todays winner was Al with a fine 84½lbs 
. Pete ended with a creditable 53½lbs for 4th on his first ever visit to the fishery 
